Florida Taxpayers Delay Filing Returns, Will Wait For Refunds

March 20, 1988|By LANE KELLEY, Business Writer

Judging from the way Florida residents are filing their income tax returns, taxpayers are dragging their feet as usual.

According to IRS officials, only 20 percent of Florida`s taxpayers have filed their returns, with close to half of the returns, or 917,000 of them, coming from South Florida residents. Statewide, the IRS expects to receive about 10 million returns this year, with half coming from South Florida.

Of the two million Florida taxpayers who have filed returns already, 32 percent have received refund checks, totaling $490 million, according to Dee Dee Byrd, spokesman for the IRS in Fort Lauderdale. About $164 million has been sent out in checks to the 215,000 early filers in South Florida, Byrd said.

She said the average refund paid so far has been $754 in Florida and $765 in South Florida.

Byrd said taxpayers who wait until the last minute to file their returns should not expect their refunds before summer. ``The later you wait, the longer it takes to get your refund,`` she said.

Taxpayers who mailed their returns in January should already have their refunds, and those who filed in February or March should get their refunds four to six weeks from when they sent them in, she said. Those who wait until the last minute -- April 15 -- should expect to wait six to 10 weeks.

She said taxpayers who haven`t received their refunds 10 weeks after mailing them can call 1-800-554-4477 to find out why.

Taxpayers also have to fill out more forms this year. There is a new one for individual retirement account contributions, and the two lines devoted last year to the mortgage interest deduction has ballooned into a two-page Form 8598 this year -- with four pages of instructions.

Taxpayers who do their own returns will probably spend a day or two in the process, according to Joel Slemrod, an economist at the University of Michigan.

Slemrod recently completed a study showing that the typical taxpayer spends 21.7 hours per year keeping records and spending the necessary time to complete all the forms for federal, state and local income tax returns.

The greater the income, the more it costs to prepare the return. Slemrod said the average tax preparation cost is $70 for low-income taxpayers, those who earn $10,000 to $15,000, $325 for middle-income taxpayers, who earn $20,000 to $30,000, and $1,431 for those earning $50,000 or more.

James Richardson in the Fort Lauderdale office of the IRS offered some tips to help those who file their own returns:

-- Round off all monetary amounts to the nearest whole dollar ($328 instead of $327.93, for example).

-- Use the peel-off label and envelope enclosed in tax packages mailed out by the IRS.

-- Sign the return (the most common mistake made on returns).

Richardson said the IRS is sponsoring a Tax Day on Saturday to give free advice to taxpayers. IRS employees will be stationed at the following locations: Dadeland and Westland shopping malls in Miami; Hollywood Fashion Center mall in Hollywood; The Bazaar in Oakland Park; and Cross County Mall, West Palm Beach.